nature: 3 different provinces, 3 different experiences

I love being outside. There is something so renewing and refreshing about being in the fresh air and as the weather is slowing beginning to get better and the temperature going up I am getting excited for all the time I can spend outside in the coming months.

Having lived in three different provinces over the past two years I have learned to love and appreciate different versions of nature.

There is nothing in my mind that beats the combination of ocean and mountains and I know that is why I (and many other people) love British Columbia so much. There is just something so amazing and awe-inspiring about being in such a beautiful place and being surrounded by so many different types of nature. Last week I was able to go on a trip to one of the Gulf Islands and loved being able to stand on cliffs above the ocean, trekking through trees in the rain.

From our time in Medicine Hat, Nigel and I loved getting to spend time in the desert. We explored a lot over these few months and almost every free day or weekend we had would find us spending a few hours hiking either within the city limits or a bit further away on an adventure. Though these months included a lot less green than we were used to there was something beautiful in the way the cliffs and coulees framed the landscape in a different way.

Now Ontario is by far the flattest place that I have ever lived and I find myself missing mountains almost every day as I look out on the horizon. That doesn’t mean however that I haven’t been able to find beauty in what is around me. There are the great lakes which are so big I have to remind myself that they aren’t the ocean, forests that stretch in every direction, and beautiful rivers that snake through my current city.

Now while there are many times that I would love to spend whole summer days outside, hiking, swimming, and exploring, but life doesn’t always allow for that. This just means that you have to be a little bit more creative with your time outside. Even when I have days where most of the day are spent in a car there is something special about pulling over at lunch time and eating beside a lake in the mountains.

Now as I am contemplating the next few months of my life, with all of its unknowns and craziness I am so excited to be moving back to the space between the ocean and mountains. To be surrounding by so much beautiful nature and fresh air is so calming to me and I am excited for all the adventures that this summer holds and the ability to explore and find new places to rest.